Financial independence was hard-wired into Jennie from a young age. “Growing up, my parents didn’t have lots of spare money but they always told me that when I had my own job I could afford to buy whatever I liked,” she said.

Taking this advice to heart, by the time she was 16 she was working five part-time jobs alongside her AS levels, and quickly got into the habit of saving.

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“Owning my own home has always been important to me,” said Jennie. “In my opinion, when you’re renting, you are just paying someone else’s mortgage.

"So as soon as I started earning I started putting £50 aside here and there – or more if I could manage it."

Jennie had long planned for property. At 17, she decided against A-levels and enrolled on a sales apprenticeship with furniture company Furnished Homes. Success came quickly: the teenager generated £500,000 in new business during her first three years.

After that, things really got serious. At 19, she found a home she wanted to buy and put all her efforts into raising the remainder of her ten per cent deposit.

“It was ‘eyes on the prize’,” she said. “Admittedly at that point I didn’t go out that much.”

The property in question, a two bedroom apartment in Yate, required complete renovation throughout; but this didn’t faze Jennie.

Before and after the renovations (Image: Jennifer Crockart)

“I saw it as a good opportunity,” she said.

After finally collecting the keys just after her twentieth birthday – a proud moment – she spent most of her free time around work painting and decorating. Thanks to her efforts, she believes the flat is now worth in excess of £150,000 – some £30,000 more than she paid for it.

So, what advice would she give to other aspiring first time buyers?

“First of all, I see where I’m living as a start. It needed work; it’s not in the most expensive part of town, but I made those sacrifices because I’d rather own than rent,” she said.

It would be easy to assume that Jennie sacrificed many of the rites of passage a millennial should experience, not least a busy social life – but she insists this isn’t the case.

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She’s still saving, but now, it’s to fund a trip around America’s west coast which is planned for later this year. And despite her tender age, she has managed to fit in a decent amount of travelling, chalking up visits to India, New York, Norway, Paris and Austria in the past few years.

“I certainly don’t feel like I’ve missed out on anything,” she said. “Starting my career at such a young age has taught me a lot about life, and I’m exactly where I want to be at the moment. I never wanted to be reliant on anyone else, and knowing I’ve achieved all this on my own is a brilliant feeling.